Positive Connections with The Fidget Widget™ Toolkit

Abstract

This collaborative project that involves testing the idea of using interactive tactile ‘tools’, involving repetitive movements to generate positive connections and enhance wellbeing for people living with later stages of dementia. Judith Bower, a dementia advisor at Alzheimer’s Society, Central & West Lancashire, was the project lead for testing the Positive Connections service. Jane Souyave, a senior lecturer at The University of Central Lancashire, was funded for developing and producing The Fidget Widget ™ Toolkit.

This is a project to design, test and evaluate a tactile experience tailored to an individual with dementia who is agitated or fidgeting and to evaluate if it can bring benefits to them and their carer. It builds on other sensory projects between the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) and Alzheimer’s Society Central and West Lancashire. If the evaluation is successful, this work has the potential to be developed into an innovative new person-centred service to support communication and well-being in people whose dementia is relatively advanced.

Judith Bower, dementia adviser and Jane Souyave, senior lecturer at The University of Central Lancashire, identified that there was a dearth of appropriate sensory items or ‘tools’ that weren’t childlike for the person with dementia and it was recognised that such items needed to be tailored to the person’s individual needs.

Former projects involved bespoke interactive sensory books, an interactive tactile display and sensory corner. These are now established at the Central Lancashire Alzheimer’s Society’s library and resource centre.

On-going discussions have identified that there is potential for unmet needs to be satisfied using multi-sensory, non-pharmacological interventions in order to provide meaningful interaction and occupation.

The project is informed by Kitwood’s (1997) work involving the five psychological needs identified to produce wellbeing: attachment, comfort, identity, occupation and inclusion. This bespoke tactile intervention could provide an opportunity for all five of these needs to be met.

This is a person centred approach and focuses on tailoring the interaction for the specific needs of the person living with dementia and their carer, to provide personal choice and control around individual needs. It can be used as an enabling aid and help people living with, or affected by, dementia to feel valued and understood.

If the evaluation is positive, this idea could be an example of best practice and innovation in dementia care and support. It could ‘Lead the way’ in providing some positive experiences and person centred approaches which are lacking as dementia progresses.

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